Songs by the Hearth

homebrew-metalurgy

This page describes various rare, exotic, and unique metals that exist on Illia.

Name

Description

Mithril

A bright silver metal that is extremely durable for how light it is. It is often made into shirts of chainmail to be worn underneath standard clothing.

Adamantium

A dull, almost matte, gunmetal colored metal that, while about the same weight as normal steel, is exceptionally good at absorbing vibrations. Because of this property it is highly sought after for weapon and armor, as well as for industrial purposes.

Cold Iron

A form of iron that is frigid to the touch and whose forging requires special magical processes that are known by only a handful of people who spend their lives perfecting the art. Cold iron is one of the few materials that can affect fey spirits.

Orium

An orange-red metal that is said to glow with the fires of forge that made it. It is one of the few precious metals that can absorb and store arcane energy (normally only crystals do that). It is theorized that ancient cultures used orium coins as currency, and their value was determined by how much magic it stored.

Alchemical Silver

A careful blend of silver and steel that is specifically designed to create weapons that can harm lycanthropes. Its craft is more alchemy than metalurgy, though once blended the alloy can be forged and reforged as any other metal.

Meldspar

A pale yellow metal that has the bizarre effect of suppressing magic in a localized area. This effect is increased when purified in a crucible. It is limited in its use by how brittle it becomes with forged, and thus is not practical as a weapon or suit of armor. It is said that kings of old would make their crowns out of meldspar to protect them from magical attacks.

Draconite

It is said that draconite is the fossilized remains of the great wyrms of old, taking on hue and property of the dragon that it came from. Whatever it’s origin, it is an extra-hard material that requires extremely (read: dangerously) high heat to melt and forge. Arcanists have also been able to coax out latent magical properties (usually energy resistance) of some, but not all, pieces of forged draconite.

Carbalite

A very difficult metal to find because its raw ore takes the appearance of the surrounding stone. The more it is purified, the more transparent this carbalite becomes; of course completely purifying the metal takes decades of work. It is lightweight and malleable, and primarily used by Eladrin in the creation of their airships.

Cosmicite

A very rare metal of irridescent purple hue that has not been studied extensively. Its known properties are mostly psionic, improving cognitive functions as well as natural psionic powers.